Monthly Archives: February 2014

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Another game, another new player for the Clippers.
Danny Granger, once the cornerstone of the blossoming Indiana Pacers, cleared waivers Friday and signed with the Clippers, adding even more depth to a team that remains serious about building a championship contender.
His recent seasons plagued by tendinitis, Granger was traded from the Pacers to Philadelphia just before the trade deadline. He worked a buyout from the 76ers to earn his freedom, then chose the Clippers over such suitors as Miami, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas.
The 6-foot-9 Granger, who averaged 25.8 points in 2008-09 and 24.1 the next season, arrives just in time for the injury-stricken Clippers. They still don’t know when J.J. Redick will return from the bulging disc in his lower back and his replacement, Jamal Crawford, is dealing with a calf strain.
The tendinitis in his right knee caused him to miss 77 games last season and was coming off the bench this season for Indiana, which is poised to challenge Miami for Eastern Conference supremacy.
“I definitely have gotten healthy,” Granger told the team’s Web site. “Now it was just a matter of getting my game back and getting my feel and I was on track. I’m still feeling good. So, I still feel like I have a lot to offer and I like the way I’m going.”
Granger had played in 29 games this season for the Pacers and averaged 8.3 points. In 2010-11, his last real full season with Indiana, he averaged 20.5 points. Two years ago, he averaged 17 points per game in 11 playoff games.
Earlier this week, the Clippers signed forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis, who had been waived by Orlando. Davis made his Clippers debut in Wednesday’s win over Houston.
“It changes the team,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said. “But we just try to do a good job of meshing them in and getting them in the mix as fast as possible.”
Granger said the lure of playing for Coach Doc Rivers and alongside Chris Paul was a tipping point in his choosing the player for the Clippers.
“I’m very familiar with the way Doc coaches,” Granger said. “And I think you always have a desire to play with a point guard the caliber of Chris Paul. And I think in the West it’s a really tight race out here and I just thought I would be able to help this team the most.”
Granger will wear jersey No. 33 and will be available to make his debut Saturday night at Staples Center when the Clippers take on New Orleans.

The average fan knows new Clippers forward Glen Davis by his nickname, “Big Baby.”

But Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who coached Davis for four years with the Boston Celtics and was reunited with him this week when the Clippers signed him to beef up their front court, has other nicknames for the 6-foot-9 big man.

“He’s called me a lot of things,” Davis said, laughing, while remembering his days under Rivers in Boston.

Like, for instance, Lazarus – a reference to Davis’ penchant for getting knocked to the floor, rolling around in pain only to miraculously rise back up to live another play.

It became a such running joke with the Celtics that Rivers readily admits there were times Davis tumbled to the court in practice and Rivers ordered the team to just keep on scrimmaging, knowing full well the injury wasn’t nearly as bad as it seemed and that Davis would eventually pick himself back up.

Normally, that is exactly what happened.

Except for the time Davis took a blow to the head in a playoff game and suffered a real injury.

Much to the surprise of Rivers and his teammates.

At the time it happened it was pretty serious. But nearly four years later it’s actually a pretty funny story.

The setting was Orlando during the 2009-10 Eastern Conference finals and Davis had just taken a wicked elbow to the head by then Magic center Dwight Howard – the force of which sent Davis crashing to the ground.

“I was out,” Davis remembered.

Rivers, though, thought it was just another of Davis’ typical over-acting jobs. And knowing the high stakes of the game, Rivers screamed at Davis to pick himself up.

If you watch the video, you can literally see Rivers angrily gesturing at Davis to get up and join his teammates on the other end of the court.

A dazed and confused Davis could hear his coach yelling at him as he struggled to gather himself.

Somehow, someway, Davis pulled himself up and tried to run to the other end of the court. Only his legs, head and senses weren’t cooperating.

“Everything was moving in slow motion,” Davis said.

Meanwhile, Rivers kept screaming at him. But try as Davis did to run, it wasn’t happening. And after taking few stumbling steps, he literally collapsed into the arms of a referee near the Celtics bench.

Only then did Rivers realize this time, Davis was really hurt.

“And as I slumped over (Rivers) was like “oh #$%$$#$.” Davis recalled.

Davis wasn’t acting. In fact he suffered a concussion.

“He felt pretty bad,” Davis said.

No hard feelings, of course. In fact, Davis cites his strong relationship with Rivers for choosing to sign with the Clippers after getting bought out by the Orlando Magic.

“But man, I haven’t thought about that in years,” Davis said. “And now that I think about it, he owes me an apology. I was knocked out, man. And he thought I was faking”

The Danny Granger chase is on and the Clippers are in the thick of it.
Granger, traded from Indiana to Philadelphia, had his contract bought out by the 76ers on Wednesday and is now free to sign.
“Of course,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers answered when asked if the Clippers are interested. Then again, so are other teams like the San Antonio Spurs, it was reported, as well as Houston, Dallas and Chicago.
“Obviously a guy with that talent, you want to look at, there’s no doubt about it,” Rivers said.
“I don’t think it is up to us. I think it will be up to Danny. I think there will be a lot of teams going after him and there should be. We’re going to have our day to talk.”

The Clippers made their announcement official Monday morning just after they signed Glen “Big Baby” Davis, who will be in uniform tonight when the Clippers face the Pelicans in New Orleans.

Davis, 28, will resume his career down the road from his native Baton Rouge, La., where he played college ball with LSU. He will also be reunited with Clippers coach Doc Rivers, Davis’ coach in Boston for four seasons.

Davis will not only once again be under the tutelage of Rivers but assistants Kevin Eastman, Armond Hill and Tyronn Lue, more connections from the Boston days.

“It really hasn’t hit me yet,” Davis said on the team Web site. “It really hasn’t donned on me. Everything’s happened so fast. Today was my first day of just really eating breakfast with the guys. It’s my first experience of bringing back old memories, especially with Doc and Armond Hill and (Lue) and Kevin Eastman. They’re a great group of guys and I won a championship with them, so we have a bond.”

It’s not official, but it’s imminent. Glen “Big Baby’ Davis is headed to the Clippers.
The forward, who has cleared waivers after being released by Orlando, will have to play for the league minimum salary because the Clippers are over the salary cap. The Clippers have roster spots open after trading away Byron Mullens and Antawn Jamison.
Davis would give the Clippers another defensive and rebounding presence and he played under Coach Doc Rivers with the Celtics.
Because the deal was not yet official, Rivers had to couch his language on the impending signing.
“What I like about a guy like that is he can play the 5 (center) or the 4 (power forward), and if we got a guy like that, he knows my system,” Rivers told reporters in Oklahoma City.

Remember when the dream scenario for the Clippers was meant to be Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes leading the charge off the bench?
As starters on Sunday, the duo combined for 60 points and the Clippers continued their three-game road trip with 125-117 win over Oklahoma City. They play in New Orleans on Monday night, then come home to face Houston on Wednesday.
The Clippers avoided losing three straight games for the first time this season.
Crawford had five 3-pointers and 36 points and Barnes made six shots from long range and scored 24 points. Blake Griffin had 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists. DeAndre Jordan had 18 points and 12 rebounds.
The Clippers withstood a 42-point, 10-assist game from Kevin Durant of the Thunder, who played without center Kendrick Perkins.
The Clippers made 13 3-pointers and are now 24-0 this seasopn when making nine or more.
“It’s important for us, it’s a part of our game that hasn’t really come through a lot this year but it did tonight,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “We stretched the floor pretty well. It’s funny trying to get Matt to run to the corners like that all year and now he’s actually doing it and that’s a good shot for him.”
The Clippers are still awaiting the return of guard J.J. Redick, who is out with a bulging disc in his lower back. That would push Crawford to the second unit.

The Clippers declined to sign Sash Vujacic to another 10-day contract, particularly with Thursday’s trade deadline approaching, but that doesn’t preclude the former Laker from getting another shot.
“With the trade deadline, we didn’t want to use another 10-day,” Coach Doc Rivers said. “I liked him and you never know if we return to that or not.”
It’s the time of year all teams have a few players looking around extra intently as rumors swirl, but the Clippers are confident that they’ll keep their focus.
“(It can distract) somewhat if you pay a lot of attention to I,t but we have a lot of mature and older veteran guys on the team to where we know this is a business,” Clippers center DeAndre Jordan said. “Nobody wants to get moved around like that, but that’s the NBA.”

The All-Star break wasn’t exactly the healing salve the Clippers had hoped it would be for J.J. Redick.
The veteran guard, who had what the Clippers were calling a hip injury that cost him the previous four games, actually has a bulging disc in his lower back. So instead of being day-to-day, Clippers coach Doc Rivers said “I don’t have a clue” when Redick could return.
“Until, I guess the (term) would be ‘calms down,’ so he can get his movement back, he’ll be out,” Rivers said. “That could be three days, two weeks, three weeks. No one knows. There’s no set deadline on when he’s coming back. He could be back quick or it could take awhile.”
Redick, who previously missed 21 games with a torn ligament in his wrist, is averaging 15.7 points this season and is shooting 39.6 percent from 3-point range. When he returns, he likely won’t have the same seamless transition back into the starting he had before his latest injury, since this time he can’t run to keep his conditioning up.
Redick has been slowed by several ailments, but the Clippers believe this injury stems from the nasty fall he took in Sacramento on Nov. 29, the same incident that hurt his wrist.
“We’re not going to put him out there ’til he’s feeling great,” Rivers said.

Chris Paul’s return pushes Darren Collison back to the bench. When J.J. Redick (sore hip) returns to the starting lineup, Jamal Crawford will join Collison off the bench.
But will Matt Barnes, who has started 11 games ahead of Jared Dudley, also return to the join the second unit?
“I don’t know yet,” Coach Doc Rivers said. “I did like Duds with Chris and J.J. I think that was a great combination at the beginning of the year and I like the energy of Matt coming off the bench, so we’ll just see.
“I think J.J. and Chris helps Jared the most, that combination. When they were all together Jared, was pretty good. That’s it.”

It seemed like a natural question to ask about the Clippers. After 18 games and a 12-6 record, how would Chris Paul fit back in with his teammates after recovering from a separated shoulder.
Jamal Crawford couldn’t wait.
“I’m excited because I think our team has grown,” Crawford said. “We’ve grown in this stretch. Even some of the losses, they’ve been tough losses. We’ve lost by a combined five points the last two games. I’m excited to grow with bringing back an MVP candidate with what we’ve been doing.”
Perhaps Crawford didn’t anticipate a 43-point lead the way they charged through the Philadelphia 76ers Sunday at Staples Center.
But there will be a difference in the Clippers. Blake Griffin’s steady improvement has included a new facet to his game, bringing the ball upcourt to help the guards.
“The only thing we did did different was outlet more to Blake, which I think will really help Chris,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “To expect Chris to push it up every time is hard and I think Darren (Collison) kind of didn’t want to do it and so that was why he was a cheerleader of ‘Throw it ahead to Blake.’
“It will make us even better now because Chris can push it and Blake can push it and it will actually in some ways make us even more dangerous.”

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